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May 29, 2012

Through the Years: A History of the IA 25

After 10 years, we’ve compiled quite a list of heavyweights that had great influence on the industry

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We’ve never attempted to rank the IA 25, but in 2011, it was difficult to argue that Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, wasn’t the most influential person in the professional lives of advisors. In her seventh appearance on the IA 25, Schapiro was in good company; other heavy hitters in the regulatory sphere included Rep. Spencer Bachus and Richard Ketchum, chairman and CEO of FINRA, as well as perennial IA 25 member Dale Brown, president of the Financial Services Institute.

Bill Dwyer

Blaine Aikin

Bruce Berkowitz

Dale Brown

David Tittsworth

Eileen Rominger

Elizabeth Warren

Harold Evensky

Julie Littlechild

Ken Fisher

Mark Tibergien

Mary Schapiro

Meir Statman

Michael McRaith

Mohamed El-Erian

Olivia Mitchell

Phyllis Borzi

Richard Ketchum

Robert Pozen

Ron Rhoades

Scott Garrett

Spencer Bachus

Spenser Segal

Tim Johnson

Tom Bradley

Click here to read the 2011 IA 25 and view links to extended profiles of each member.

2010: Thirty for Thirty

In 2010, we departed from the IA 25 only slightly to celebrate Investment Advisor’s 30th anniversary with the 30 most influential people in the industry. At such a milestone, we were especially eager to show you who we felt were the biggest players in the industry as advisors, visionaries and regulators. We led the list with industry stalwart John Bogle for his role in founding the industry's largest mutual fund company, in creating the first index mutual fund, and for his efforts to “bring common sense, reality, and mathematical truth back into the world of investing.”

In 2009, the political and economic environments were in constant flux. The steps taken in 2009 clearly indicated that the president, Congress, the SEC, Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve would affect advisors and their clients in massive ways. In fact, as the center of the financial universe shifted from Wall Street to Washington, we named more elected officials and appointed Federal regulators to the list than in any other year.

While most of the honorees on this list and others tend to influence the industry in positive if controversial ways, we couldn’t argue that Bernie Madoff and the epic fraud he perpetrated wouldn’t bring a powerful change to the industry.

In 2008, Mark Tibergien's role shifted from that of revered consultant and industry observer extraordinaire to running a custodial firm for RIAs, Pershing Advisor Solutions. In no other year of the IA 25 has a single job change captured the zeitgeist of the profession. That's because while there may be many gurus who promise to give struggling advisors a foot up on their competitors, the hands-down leader in helping advisors turn their practices into well-run, profitable businesses is now in the position of being the most-watched leader of an advisor-related company in the business.

When Mary Schapiro took the helm as CEO and chairman of the NASD in September 2006, it was a moment of relative calm before the storm. Since then, she's been the guiding light in the effort to dissect and rewrite the rules of the NASD and NYSE into a single rulebook for all 5,100 broker-dealers, and to merge the regulatory arms of NYSE and NASD into a single self-regulatory organization--which Schapiro will lead.

When trying to get a handle on a profession as diverse and unwieldy as the investment advisor/financial planner universe, it's hard to find commonalities. There are advisors and planners and consultants, not to mention those qualifiers: "investment advisors," "financial advisors," "life planners," and "financial consultants." Ron Roge has been part of this industry for much of the profession's history, and he stands now comfortable and yet still evolving at the cusp of the next transformation. That's why we decided to lead the 2006 edition of the IA 25 with a profile on Roge as emblematic of the profession's journey and a model for how to transform a practice for the future.

In 2005, the IA 25 comprised a diverse group of honorees including George W. Bush and Bob Veres, Chuck Schwab and Andy Gluck, Alan Greenspan and Sheryl Garrett. “It's a club whose diversity reflects the broad range of pastimes and passions and partnerships that is the financial planning and investment advisory universe in the year 2005,” Jamie Green, group editor-in-chief for Investment Advisor, wrote at the time.

Almost as notable as the honorees in 2004’s list are the exclusions. Coming out of the bear market in 2003, we included several money managers; this year, just one made the cut. But we have included more regulatory and oversight folks, reflecting the higher profile of such individuals these days. Also, we included leaders of the custodial and clearing firms that have become a more important part of the independent advisor's business model.

All traditions have to start somewhere. Listing the most influential people within any profession is a daunting task, but the job is particularly difficult within financial planning, where fierce independence is prized but partnerships are the order of the day. We chose the members of the IA 25 because they are the heavyweights of the profession now and will remain so in years to come. They are the planners who have gained the respect of peers for their foresight, business acumen, and ethics. They are the academics who built the foundations of the profession, and the money managers who beat the S&P year in and year out. They are the CEOs and the regulators who keep them in check. They are the visionaries who built the partner businesses planners couldn't live without.